


Wonder

by CheshireGrinn (orphan_account)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/M, Hopeful Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2013-11-22
Packaged: 2018-01-02 07:51:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/CheshireGrinn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Emma catches sight of Killian's tattoo, and wonders. [Captain Swan; past Hook/Milah]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wonder

It catches her eye, sometimes, just when he's talking with his hands, or the breeze blows his sleeve back.

It's far from perfect, faded by hard times and sea breezes, marred in a few spots by pale, thin scars, wounds long healed. But the ink itself is the mark of a wound that may never heal, not truly. It may scab, and ache less over time, but never truly go away.

She can't help it. She wonders. No one talks about her, not really, nothing more than a passing, cryptic remark. Part of her wants to know, is curious despite the fact that she has no right. Milah was never anything to her, not like Gold, not like Killian. But she wonders about her, the woman that knew a softer Rumpelstiltskin, the woman that gave up her entire life, her son, for a pirate with a notorious reputation. 

She wonders how they match up, how similar they are, how different. Did Milah have any quirks, like cinnamon in her hot chocolate? Did she build up walls, impossible to break down? Did she push people away, did she hate the emptiness, the loneliness...did she ever wonder about the son left behind, gone away?

She's cautious, always so cautious when she grasps and stumbles upon these thoughts, these self-depreciating notions, that she's not good enough, that she won't hold a candle to the woman before.

But one day, one time, sea blue eyes rimmed in kohl catch her own lighter, sky-hued ones, and it's sudden, knowing he knows. There is no question in his gaze, no confusion, and she's ashamed, afraid, and the desire to hop up and run is nearly overpowering.

But he offers a hand, calloused and tanned, and she locks her gaze on it even as he says with that charming accent, “Swan.”

She has two decisions. She has two decisions, and one over the other will change everything. 

She's essentially made hers, picturing rabbits rushing through underbrush from their predators, muscles bunching and ready to spring, but his voice stops everything, makes her eyes flick up.

His gaze is open and hopeful and almost hurting, hurting for her, and he nudges his hand forward, voice impossibly soft and soothing and healing, “Emma, love...”

That's it. 

She slips her hand in his.

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda fell out of the Captain Swan fandom (blame Sterek) but I'm back!  
> Yay?
> 
> Reviews and kudos are love. <3


End file.
